The Lodge.

Our family had the most wonderful weekend

at the end of September.

Anytime Luke has a conference

the rest of us get to tag along

for a mini vacation.

We traveled north to Brainerd

& spent a couple night at The Lodge.

Home of the Paul Bunyan Waterpark!

It was SO much fun!

Adler learned how to stay upright with his life jacket

while we were there & he swam all over

by HIMSELF!

I've been waiting for this day so my anxiety

of trying to keep 2 kids afloat

could subside.

And that day finally came!

So even though dad was at his conference most of the day

we still were able to swim all morning & afternoon

because I only had to keep Brockie afloat!

We ate at the BEST restaurant during our stay.

If you ever get to Brainerd you MUST eat at

Prairie Bay.

The sign from the road looks like nothing special (AT ALL!),

but we heard from our friends that it was awesome

and the food was from local farmers.

It was SO good.....AMAZING!

I can't wait to eat there again.

Best restaurant I've been to in my life.

So anyway...you really need to eat there!

p.s. this is not the restaurant in the pic below, this was Black Bear

and we thought it was great, but nothing compared the next night

at Prairie Bay.

The rooms at The Lodge were 'family friendly'.

They had 2 seperate areas for sleeping & other rooms had

seperate living spaces....completely worth the money to stay there!

The boys are I also took a couple trips to Nisswa.

Like always we made a stop at Rachel's Bakery.

They make the donuts all day long and are SO fresh!

I had at least 2 donuts a day! haha

Did I mention the hotel also has an arcade? 

So we didn't tell the boys until it was Brock's birthday...

and boy did we throw him a party!

We went to the waterpark, had cake & cupcakes,

donuts from Rachel's, MANY birthday wishes from strangers,

opened gifts, played in the arcade,

& went swimming all night!

What a great birthday for a sweet boy!

(I hope Adler doesn't think we're doing that for his birthday in a month!)

Brock wanted to know who was riding the bus with them! haha

Lazy river with daddy.

This was the gift Adler picked out to give to Brock.

Brock was so nice to let Adler play with it all night.

Adler picked it out for him because he wanted it of course!

It was one of our family's best weekends together.

And it was a very quiet ride home!

Then when we got home I noticed

The Lodge had a crowd cut deal for 50% off a 2 night stay!

Believe me....I purchased it right away.

I can't wait to go back!